According to Ralph Space in his book, The Clearwater Story: A History of the Clearwater National Forest, the Clearwater Valley has a number of plants found no where else in Idaho. They are more common along the Oregon Coast and inland along the Columbia River. Plants so far from their normal habitat are called disjunct species, which means 'disconnected'.

He says that the species became disconnected from the coast through a geological change which brought about a plant change. "At one time the portion of the Cascade Mountains south of the Columbia River was much lower than at present. At that time, rainfall was much heavier along the Snake River, as well as the Columbia below the mouth of the Snake and in the Clearwater Country. The forest of the coast extended east and covered not only the portion of the Columbia that is now desert but also the Clearwater valleys."

When the Cascades rose they cut off a great deal of rainfall over the area to the east and much of it became desert. Only the species in the warm, wet portions of the Clearwater survived.

The Pacific Dogwood is one of the best known of these disjunct plants in the Clearwater. It has large white flowers surrounded by white sepals. It blooms in May and sometimes in September. Its leaves turn scarlet after the first frost, making it a very attractive plant then too.

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